


Irrational Humanity and Cold Science

by MeganRosenberg



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Alien Abduction, Alien Cultural Differences, Aliens, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fear, Friendship, Gen, Gentle Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty), Grandpa Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty), Hurt/Comfort, Male Friendship, Medical Experimentation, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Original Alien Characters - Freeform, Protective Rick, Protectiveness, morty smith - Freeform, scared morty smith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25180129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganRosenberg/pseuds/MeganRosenberg
Summary: Rick and Morty are abducted by aliens who wish to keep them and perform medical experiments on them. Rick wouldn't mind so much thanks to his cold, scientific view of the situation, but Morty's very-human emotions surrounding the experience makes Rick feel a little uncharacteristically emotional himself.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter 1

xxxxxx

Chapter 1

xxxxxx

"So what does this stuff do, Rick?" Morty asked as he twisted around in his seat and looked back behind them at the buckets of mesmerizing glowing sand they had spent the past several hours collecting. It sparked almost like it was purely glitter, but such a fine, soft glitter. Morty kind of wanted to spread the sand out on the floor and just roll around in it. It was so damn pretty.

"I already fucking told you, Morty. Not my fault your dumb little brain can't ever comprehend anything I say, and for the last time... don't fucking touch it." Rick growled, glaring over toward his grandson as Morty couldn't help but to reach toward the substance.

Morty smiled as he squished some of the substance between his fingers. He wished he could have collected a whole bucket of it just for himself. Collecting it had taken a while, but at least it was kind of fun. Nothing tried to kill them while they gathered it. They just went to this really gorgeous planet with clouds just as beautiful as the sand below, collected the stuff, and went on their way. It was perhaps the easiest adventure he'd ever been involved in with his grandfather.

"It feels like moon sand, Rick." Morty noted as he formed some of the sand into a ball in his hands.

"It most certainly does not. Not any moon I've ever been to." Rick grumbled. "Your understanding of the universe is so fuckin' dense, Morty."

"Not the actual moon... Like the colorful stuff you can buy and build sand castles with - like for kids..." Morty frowned, drawing his hand back and facing forward in his seat again. "Magnetic sand? Or is it kinetic sand...? I don't know. Mom bought me some purple moon sand like five years ago. I ended up spilling it all in the carpet and she got mad and vacuumed it up."

Rick rolled his eyes and shook his head, choosing not to acknowledge his grandson's comments.

"What'd you say it was for?" Morty asked again, narrowing his eyes toward Rick. He knew his grandfather had already attempted to explain it a few times, but he kept using words Morty didn't understand, over-explaining in a way that was so confusing Morty lost focus half-way through and ended up not knowing any more at the end of the explanation than when Rick started.

"You're not gonna listen or understand anyway, Morty. Just take it at face value - it's magnetic sand that you can't fucking play with..." Rick explained as Morty turned around in his seat and reached toward the substance again "Not unless you want space herpes." Rick added.

Morty grimaced and drew his hand back. "Space herpes?" He whispered. He'd already touched it! He had touched it a lot. They both did.

"Only if you have an open wound. Do you?" Rick stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

Morty stared down at his hands. He didn't see any scrapes or scratches on his skin. They were pretty much crawling through it though... It got all over both of them. He probably got little particles of it in his mouth. Probably breathed it! "Rick... We both collected this stuff with our bare hands!" He reminded the man. "For hours!" He added.

Rick laughed. "Space herpes isn't a thing, dumb ass. You're so fucking gullible. I'm using this shit to make antidotes and healing creams. Jesus Christ, Morty. You think I'm gonna collect a bunch of motherfucking space herpes in buckets and take it home. Are you serious? Damn you're a fucking idiot sometimes, Morty..."

Morty frowned and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared out the passenger side window of the space craft. He didn't think it was really very funny. Rick could have just put it simply like that from the start rather than making it into a big, drawn-out thing. He knew Morty wouldn't understand the scientific version of the explanation, and how the hell was Morty supposed to know space herpes wasn't a thing? It probably even was a thing in a different dimension, considering there were infinite realities. By Rick's own definition of the multiverse, literally everything imaginable existed somewhere.

"Don't get your dumb little feelings hurt, Morty. I was fuckin' joking about the space herpes." Rick shook his head.

"I was only asking a question, Rick. I just wanted to know what it does. You don't always have to be mean to me." Morty stared back at his grandfather. "I don't always understand things when you put 'em scientifically, okay? You know that already... s-so in a way, y-you know, you're the one being dumb not putting it in terms I understand."

Rick scoffed and rolled his eyes. "That's fuckin' rich, Morty... You don't understand something and accuse someone else of being dumb. Fantastic."

Morty shook his head and stared out his window at the stars. "I'm just saying, you need to know your audience Rick. Be a better communicator."

Rick chucked softly. "Communicating with a dumbass emotional fuckin' basketcase. Sorry I didn't sound dumb enough for it to sink into your little skull."

Morty frowned as he looked back up through the windshield and noticed something large approaching from in front of them. It looked like a giant space ship - kind of exactly like what Morty would have described a space ship a few years ago - before he ever rode in one - like a very stereotypical 'U.F.O.' design from the 1960s. Kind of like Rick's ship even - only really, really huge. It was practically the size of a building.

"Um... Rick..." Morty spoke in a small voice, barely able to make even that much come out of his mouth as he stared with a cold feeling in his chest. He knew gathering the space sand had been too easy. Maybe these people were coming to take it back from them.

Morty's eyes widened as he watched out the windshield. The larger ship was slowly moving closer, crowding out the distant stars.

He glanced over at Rick, who didn't even seem to be watching out the windshield. The man was staring down at his hands, picking at his fingernails. "Rick!" Morty said louder, staring with his mouth hanging open back out the front window. "There's something out there..."

"No shit." Rick laughed, still focusing on his fingers rather than paying attention to where he was driving. "We're in space, Morty. Everything that isn't in here is out there. Like, the whole universe, dipshit. Why do you always have to be such a jumpy, overreacting fucking dumba- Oh... fuck." He grimaced when he finally looked up.

"What?" Morty breathed, gripping his seat cushion in nervous hands as he glanced toward Rick. "What is it? Who are they? What are they gonna do, Rick?"

"Well... These are the type of aliens dumb asses think all aliens are..." Rick frowned, grabbing his steering wheel and jerking it to the side.

Morty gasped, nearly falling out of his seat. "What does that mean?" Morty breathed, refastening his seat belt. They'd been traveling so long without incident that he had taken it off. He knew he shouldn't have let his guard down. Of course collecting the sand without anyone trying to kill them and nothing at all going wrong was too good to be true.

"Well, just think about it, Morty. What did you think aliens were like before you ever met one?" Rick raised an eyebrow and stared across the seat at his grandson.

Morty shrugged a shoulder. "Little green guys with big black eyes?"

Rick shook his head. "Not that part... More in behavior than appearance."

"I don't fucking know, Rick! Can we stop playing twenty questions and you just tell me!?" Morty breathed, grabbing toward the seat cushion again as Rick took another sharp turn. "Are they gonna fucking kill us?" Morty gasped.

Rick laughed again. "Probably not... Well, maybe... But they're the 'abduct you and do medical experiments on you' type of alien... to answer your dumb ass question... So we need to get the hell out-" Rick cut himself off with a sharp breath when the ship suddenly came to a very sudden stop.

Morty winced as his body jerked forward, being stopped rather harshly by his seat belt before he slammed into the front of the car. It felt pretty much like they had collided with something, but they hadn't. Their car just very suddenly froze in place, which was basically just as traumatic as a collision.

Groaning a pained noise, Morty squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on breathing. His ribs and shoulder hurt where the seat belt had held him back so firmly. He felt like he couldn't inhale. He reached his hand up toward the seat belt, trying to loosen it, feeling like maybe it was what was keeping his lungs from expanding.

He still couldn't breathe in... He felt his eyes watering as he choked out a tiny whimper.

After what felt like forever, Morty was finally able to inhale a painful, shaking breath. Tears flowed from his eyes as he squeezed them shut and continued breathing in and out. His ribs still hurt pretty bad, but at least he could breathe again.

"Rick?" Morty whispered, swallowing and blinking his eyes back open. He let out a small, shaky sob as he began looking around. The ship seemed frozen in space. It wasn't moving at all, but it didn't seem like it had hit anything else. "Rick?" Morty whispered, glancing over toward his grandfather.

"Oh fuck..." Morty whimpered when he saw Rick's seat belt hadn't stopped him from being flung roughly forward. He hadn't been wearing it.

Rick was slumped awkwardly against the space ship's dashboard. A small cut oozing blood was on his forehead and he seemed to be unconscious.

"Rick!" Morty whispered, unbuckling his seat belt, crawling over the seat, and grabbing at Rick's shoulder, shaking him gently. Morty let out a soft whimper when he looked around again. Their entire space-car was being sucked up into the larger, alien ship.

Morty breathed a tiny, shaking breath when their ship came to a rest inside the larger one. Several large aliens immediately began approaching. They didn't look like the 1960s aliens that would have matched the stereotypical ship. They had green skin of varying shades, but they weren't little with huge eyes. They were tall, broad-chested, muscular... very scary-looking, with four arms each, large mouths, ten or so eyes each... To put it bluntly, they looked like an actual fucking nightmare.

"Rick! Get up! Wake up, Rick!" Morty whimpered, reaching toward his grandfather again, shaking the man's arm desperately. He didn't want to deal with this alone. "Please wake up!"

Morty turned back toward the door when the aliens effortlessly pried it open and reached inside toward him. "No! Get away!" Morty screamed, swatting his hands toward theirs and kicking out desperately as he pressed his back against the door they weren't reaching through, trying to distance himself as much as possible. "Don't touch me!" He screamed. "Rick! Help me!" He whimpered a shaky cry.

The alien grabbing toward him didn't seem deterred by his efforts or his screams. It grabbed Morty's arms and easily dragged him out, immediately snapping some kind of collar around his neck, then shoving him down onto the floor.

Morty landed on his hands and knees, shrinking down and looking up at the alien as another one grabbed Rick out of the spaceship and dragged him out in a similar fashion, snapping a metal collar around his neck and depositing him onto the floor next to Morty.

Morty felt his lip trembling and tears filling his eyes as a third alien shoved some sort of iPad-looking thing in front of his face and made a series of clicking noises with its mouth, nodding down toward the tablet.

Morty shook his head as he stared at the device, which had dozens of hexagonal buttons on the screen. Each one had symbols on them. They almost looked like they were each a different language, as some of the symbols looked more complicated or a completely different style than the others. He had no idea what any of it meant or why the alien had given it to him. Was he supposed to press one of the buttons? Why? How could he know which one?

"I don't-" He started, grimacing nervously and breathlessly as he looked from the screen back up toward the alien with a shake of his head and small, timid shrug.

The alien made the same clicking noises again, nodding toward the tablet, then grabbing Morty's arm, dragging his hand toward the screen.

Morty whimpered and tried to pull his arm back. "Stop!" He breathed, but the alien gripped his arm tighter, making quicker clicking noises with his mouth, shaking him as though frustrated. "I don't know what you want!" Morty cried, glancing back toward Rick again, who was lying limply on the floor. "Rick!" Morty whimpered. Rick would probably know what to do if he were conscious.

The alien squeezing his arm grabbed the back of Morty's head and shoved him toward the tablet, forcing Morty to look at it closer. It was still just rows and rows of buttons with symbols he didn't understand.

"I don't know what to do!" Morty breathed shakily. "Let go of me!"

The alien let out a growling breath, still holding onto the back of Morty's neck, forcing him to watch as it reached toward the screen, swiping a hand across it to reveal another page of symbols.

Morty frowned and reached toward the screen, swiping through pages of symbols, hoping to see something he recognized. He let out a breath when he finally saw what looked like letters from Earth, even though he wasn't sure what they said, if they were another language or just a random assortment. He pressed it, then the tablet started speaking in a very robotic-sounding French or Italian or something.

Morty looked up at the alien and shook his head.

The alien made more clicking sounds and pressed something on the tablet, bringing up more buttons that looked much more familiar. Maybe they were different languages from earth.

Morty breathed out a small breath when he saw a button that read 'Earth: English Language.' He quickly pressed it, still not sure what the hell was going on, but feeling like there was at least a small part of this process that wasn't complete nonsense.

The robotic voice spoke out from the tablet again. "You Comprehend. Language English. Planet Earth. Finger press hexagonal affirm pad if correct."

Morty swallowed and pressed the hexagon on the screen, then looked up at the alien, who moved the tablet away and reached up toward its own neck, unhooking some kind of device and pressing some buttons on it, looking toward its companions and making clicking noises, apparently explaining something to them, as they removed their devices next and pressed buttons too, as though this made sense to all of them.

Morty exhaled a sharp breath and flinched back when the alien reached toward him next, grabbing something off of the collar he wore, which he now realized looked the same as the ones the aliens wore. The alien pressed some buttons on it and snapped it back into place on the collar.

"Earthling English?" The first alien spoke down to him. "I speak your language now?"

Morty licked his lips, but nodded. "C-close enough..." He breathed.

"Yes? I speak your language?" The alien asked again.

"Um... Yes." Morty whispered, swallowing nervously. The collars must have been some sort of translation device.

The alien nodded toward its companions, grabbing Morty's arm and dragging him along as one of the others grabbed Rick, tossing the man over his shoulder and following. "The translator will adapt and learn your language as it are heard from your voice and that of your companion. Our translating system are very advanced, with capacity to learn from experience. You may notice your language are not fully present in what we say at this time, but our grasp of Earthing English will improve during your time with us."

"M-my time with you? I... W-what's happening? W-what are you guys gonna do?" Morty breathed.

"This are also Earthling?" The alien holding onto Rick asked.

"Yeah... I mean yes. Yes. He is. He's from Earth. H-he's my grandpa... We're f-family... like... relatives? We're related. M-my mom is his daughter..." Morty breathed, trying to make as much sense as possible considering these aliens didn't seem to have a great grip on the English language. "W-we're both humans from Earth..."

The alien holding onto Morty frowned down at him. "Earth child." He noted, nodding toward Rick next. "Adult. Elder."

"Y-yeah..." Morty nodded. "I mean, I'm a teenager. I'm not like a child... I technically am, I guess..."

"We keep the child." One of the other aliens noted.

Morty felt his mouth drop open and his eyes widen as he shook his head. "N-no... Y-you can't keep me... I... We were just... like passing through... We-"

"Enough." The alien dragging him along pressed a button on a cuff it wore around its wrist and suddenly Morty felt a sharp, horrible pain in his neck... The collar was doing something. Shocking him? Drugging him?

"St-stop!" Morty gasped, reaching up toward the collar as he stumbled forward, unable to keep walking while the pain was coursing through his body.

"Enough." The alien said again, pressing the button once more until Morty felt his eyes roll back in his head and he lost consciousness completely.

xxxxxx


	2. Chapter 2

xxxxxx

Chapter 2

xxxxxx

"Motherfucker..." Rick grumbled as he blinked his eyes open. He was in a very brightly lit room. So bright in fact that he couldn't get his eyes to adjust right away. He felt like he was staring into a fucking sun, which did not do his throbbing headache any favors at all.

When he tried to reach his hand up toward his aching forehead, he found his arm was somehow secured down by his thigh. "Oh fuck... God damn it. Son of a bitch..." Rick growled, looking down as his eyes adjusted to see his wrists and ankles were both cuffed to a table he was strapped down to. The table was at a slant so he was about 75% of the way there to standing upright.

With a frown, Rick glared across the room, finding Morty to be in a similar predicament. His eyes were closed and his head was lolled slightly to the side. He wasn't awake.

Swallowing, Rick looked down at his wrists, shifting them uncomfortably, trying to see if he could figure an easy way out of this. He looked around the room. His lab coat was lying on a counter of some kind in the corner. That's where all of his inventions and gadgets were. He had a pocket laser-knife that would cut through the cuffs on his and Morty's ankles and wrists, but it was in his coat. His portal gun and laser gun were in there too.

Groaning in annoyance, Rick pulled at his hands, trying and failing to slide them trough the cuffs. They were too tight.

"Morty." Rick whispered. Morty's hands were tiny. If either of them might be able to get free without unlocking or cutting through the cuffs, it would be him. "Morty... Hey, dipshit..." Rick hissed. Morty didn't move a muscle. "God damn it..." Rick exhaled.

Rick frowned when he heard the noise of a door sliding open, followed by an alien walking into the room. The thing was tall, muscular, and green. It had four arms, tons of eyes, and a huge mouth. It wore nothing in the way of clothes besides a collar around its neck and some kind of arm band on its wrist.

"Hey!" Rick called out to it, feeling immediately angry when it ignored him and headed toward Morty instead. "Hey!" Rick yelled out again, louder this time. "You better not know English to be fucking ignoring me like this, asshole!" He growled.

The alien continued to pretend like Rick wasn't even there as he pressed some buttons on the screen of a device he was holding in his hand. He did glance over toward the door when a second being, whose color was a slightly darker green, entered the space though. So he did have the understanding of some kind of social norms to know to look at his friend at least.

"Scan of vitals and organs correspond closely to average Earth human of adult age. Smaller weight and height, faster heart-rate. As adult humans previous, this one wears artificial skin." The light-green alien noted, pinching a bit of Morty's shirt between its fingers.

"Okay... so you do know fucking English... I mean, it's not great..." Rick scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Turn around and fucking talk to me." He demanded.

The aliens continued ignoring him, choosing to speak to each other instead.

"Remove artificial skin. Previous tests confirmed lack of necessity. Our ship contains adequate temperatures for human survival." The second alien advised the first.

Morty suddenly breathed in a small, weak-sounding moan as he started blinking his eyes tiredly.

Rick grimaced. Now wasn't a great time for Morty to start waking back up. There were two massive, horrible-looking aliens examining him, talking about taking off his clothes. The kid was going to fucking flip out.

"Hey!" Rick yelled out again as Morty struggled to pull his heavy eyelids up. "I'm talking to you giant, green, four-armed fuckers. Can you fucking look at me? You're being really damn rude..."

Rick frowned as he noticed Morty blinking his eyes open, shrinking down with a whimper as the lighter skinned alien grabbed at the front of the boy's shirt, using some sort of laser-device to begin to cut through the material.

"Wh-what are you doing? Stop!" Morty breathed in a tiny voice, looking frantically around himself and tugging uselessly at his trapped wrists. "Rick! Help me!" He sobbed.

Rick gritted his teeth together. He wanted to tell Morty he was going to be okay, that the aliens wouldn't hurt him, but he wasn't sure that was true.

As the creature removed Morty's shirt and aimed its laser toward the side of Morty's leg to begin working on his pants, Morty choked out a shaky, frightened cry. "Please stop!" He whimpered.

"Stop!" Rick growled. As much as he knew being naked wasn't a big deal, he also knew that to Morty it was. These aliens were probably only curious about the human body. They needed to remove any clothing so they could see what they were working with - to them, it wasn't sexual. To Morty, it was. The kid was fucking terrified.

"Rick..." Morty cried, squeezing his eyes shut as he pulled his little hands into fists and tried to shrink back. "Make him stop! Please make him stop!"

"Stop it! Fucking stop!" Rick raised his voice. "God damn it, stop!"

Finally, both of the aliens turned toward Rick, frowning as they stared.

"What the hell?" Rick breathed once he finally had their attention. "What... What the fuck do you think you're doing? You're intelligent enough to invent this translator collar bullshit... So I assume you're intelligent enough to understand fucking emotions, even if you don't have any... I don't know what the cultural norm is on your planet... I mean, I can guess judging by the fact that neither of you are wearing clothing... But humans on earth typically harbor a deep shame about having their bodies exposed."

"That's illogical." The darker-skinned creature frowned.

"It's human. Humans are fuckin' dumb." Rick shrugged.

"Are you not a human?" The darker alien frowned.

"Yeah. I am. And that makes me kinda dumb, but I'm smart enough to realize it. I don't fucking care if you cut off my clothes, but he's fucking scared. It's irrational, but it is what it is. Most humans are gonna be weird about it." Rick explained.

"We're researching. Science of various creatures across the universe. Medical science requires lack of false skin impeding our studies." The pale alien explained. "Removing this abiotic component will not harm the child."

Morty choked out another soft sob and shrunk down as this was discussed. He, like Rick, was very much unable to really move at the moment.

Rick shook his head. "Science is fucking great, okay? I agree with that... But humans are more emotional than they are smart. This dumb little idiot's gonna be completely fucking traumatized if you take his clothes."

"Traumatized?" The first alien frowned in confusion.

"Yeah..." Rick frowned as well. "Like scared. Upset... It's an emotion thing... Humans cry and breathe hard and panic when they're upset..."

"Upset." The darker alien repeated, staring blankly back.

"You guys don't do emotions, do you?" Rick frowned with a raised eyebrow. "Just... Imagine it like an intense desire for self-preservation during which remaining alive and safe seems unlikely or impossible. Fear..."

"He'll survive. And have safety. This false skin is not necessary. We won't harm him." The dark alien nodded, reaching back toward Morty and beginning to laser-cut through his pant leg.

"Rick!" Morty screamed, flinching back and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Stop!" Rick growled again, squeezing his hands into fists as the sound of Morty's terrified, shaking sobs filled the space. "Just wait! Fuckin' listen to me, damn it!"

The dark-green alien turned back toward Rick again. "We will observe vitals, body anatomy. The child will not face physical harm. There is no danger of severe injury or death. We practice general morality in terms of avoiding injury and death of our test subjects during examination and testing."

Morty let out another tiny sob, but kept his eyes closed tightly as he shrunk down as much as he possibly could.

"It's a feeling." Rick explained with a frown. "An emotion... He feels like he's not safe. It's all about how it feels, mentally. Fear can feel as bad or worse than actual fucking pain. To him this is fuckin' scary... Painful - emotionally. Worse than getting punched." Rick shook his head. "I know it's not logical. If you've worked with humans before you should know this about us already. You can do your medical tests on me, okay? Whatever you want. I'll cooperate fully. You can't do this to him... You've gotta let him go."

"No physical pain will befall the child." The alien persisted, turning back toward Morty and cutting away his pants.

"God damn it..." Rick grumbled under his breath as Morty cried pathetically across the room. "Morty...Morty, listen to me..." He called out, pausing until his grandson blinked through his tears and stared back. "It's okay... It's just me in here... And them... and they're probably just gonna like do medical tests... Like at the doctor... It's not a sex thing. Not to them."

Morty whimpered and looked away from Rick as the dark-green alien lasered away his underwear, then handed the laser to the light-green one and began looking Morty over.

"Look, Morty!" Rick called out, trying to distract his grandson from the horror that was a huge alien examining him while he was completely naked, tied down to a table. "Look! He's cutting off mine too! Morty, look! It's fine. I don't even care!" Rick insisted as the pale alien lasered away Rick's shirt, then his pants and underwear. Both he and Morty now only wore socks and shoes.

"S-stop..." Morty breathed shakily as the alien in front of him used two hands to examine Morty's body while taking down notes with his other two. "Don't touch me! Please!" He sobbed.

Rick closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling as he felt the alien examining him. This wasn't that big of a deal so far... Morty wasn't in any real danger at the moment, but Rick did recognize that the kid had a lot more shame and fear about nudity than Rick did. He was also just more fearful in general.

These aliens were large, and Morty was tied down. They could hurt him if they wanted to, and Morty didn't know if they wanted to. Rick didn't really know either, though he felt fairly certain these entities weren't trying to be cruel. They weren't going to torture their test subjects. Didn't want to abuse them for their own amusement. They just wanted to look at them, test things on them, learn from it.

"Morty..." Rick called out again, leaning to the side as much as he could to see around the alien currently grabbing and groping at his body. "Look at me, Morty..." He advised.

Morty blinked his eyes and stared around his examiner at Rick. Tears were running down his face. He looked so fucking scared, so heartbroken.

"You're okay, Morty... They're just looking... Taking notes... Writing down like how tall you are, how much you weigh, what your skin's made of. Just basic shit. They're researching. Y-you know, we're aliens to them... They just wanna understand our species better... They won't hurt you, right?" Rick asked, glancing up at the alien currently examining him.

Rick's examiner ignored him as it held a device up to Rick's chest, possibly scanning his organs, then placed it on the table next to Rick's semi-upright table and proceeded to place its hands over Rick's ribs, feeling somewhat roughly... maybe counting them?

"R-Rick... I wanna go home..." Morty whimpered, closing his eyes and choking out a tiny sob from across the room. "I'm s- I'm scared..."

"I know, buddy... You - you're gonna be okay..." Rick frowned.

He honestly felt very frustratingly powerless at the moment. While he didn't consider this that big of a deal to himself, Morty was definitely traumatized by it, and Rick would be lying if he told Morty he was sure things would be okay. He wasn't sure. Maybe these aliens would kill them. Maybe they'd consider rape a medical experiment too. Rick didn't know... In a way, sexual things could fairly be considered scientific. Maybe the aliens would want to research human reproduction, or test how much stimulation would result in an erection or orgasm. Maybe they'd be curious about the human digestive system and want to stick something up there to check it out. For a species seemingly without emotion, they probably wouldn't even be trying to be cruel if they did something like that.

"They won't do any sex stuff... They won't hurt you. Right?" Rick repeated as he looked up at the alien in front of him again, who was currently lifting Rick's penis to look underneath. Rick flinched and gritted his teeth. "Hey... Be careful, you fuckstain. Humans don't like that kinda shit unless you ask nicely." He glared.

"Rick!" Morty suddenly screamed, probably being subjected to the same part of the examination Rick was experiencing. "Help me! Make him stop! Let go, please! Stop! Don't touch me!" He sobbed, his voice growing quicker and more frantic by the second.

Rick inhaled a shaky breath as he glared across the room, feeling increasingly angry. It was fair enough that these creatures didn't experience emotions like humans did, but Rick already told them that Morty was scared, that fear was a horrible feeling.

Morty flinched and sobbed shakily across the room as Rick felt the alien in front of him pawing around between his legs. Morty was likely experiencing the same thing.

"Morty, it's okay. You're okay..." Rick urged. He felt fucking horrible as he tugged uselessly at his trapped arms again. He didn't even really mind the examination himself, but it clearly scared the hell out of his grandson.

Morty continued sobbing as he flinched and thrashed around as best as his restraints allowed. He was no longer pleading or calling out to Rick, likely having realized that was useless. Of course, thrashing around while his wrists and ankles were strapped down to a table was useless too, and he was tugging at both his arms and legs pretty hard.

"You're gonna fuckin' dislocate your wrists, Morty..." Rick grimaced. "Jesus, Morty... Calm down..." Rick advised, feeling kind of guilty to suggest it when the only reason his grandson was panicking was because a huge alien was groping him.

"The adult and child are very similar besides proportions being smaller." The alien in front of Morty noted. "Less hair on the legs and chest. Perhaps hair besides that on the head comes with age. Some of the other males exhibited facial hair as well. This one does not. It is male. Less genital hair than the adults." The alien noted, reaching back down between Morty's legs.

Morty let out another shaking sob, squeezing his eyes shut and pulling his hands into frustrated little fists.

"Guys, come on..." Rick exhaled. "You're scaring the hell out of him. He's fuckin' scared. Humans are different than you... Especially kids. Please just stop fucking grabbing his dick..."

"These two are familial relations." The alien in front of Rick noted to the other as he reached his hands up toward Rick's face and narrowed his eyes. "Skin tone is quite different between the two. Humans vary in eye and hair color as well, seemingly regardless of family connection. Take a DNA sample from subject 2, teeth imprint, finger prints. Blood and semen samples as well."

Rick felt his stomach do a flip as he heard that. It didn't seem like Morty noticed while shrinking down, crying softly on the other side of the room. Rick wasn't sure how these aliens planned on getting a semen sample, but he doubted they were going to give Morty a dirty magazine and a cup and send him off to a bathroom somewhere.

"Sedate the child. He's going to injure himself moving around so erratically." The alien in front of Morty suggested before turning and leaving.

Rick stared at Morty, noticing the boy breathe in a small gasp as he stared after the alien who had been examining him. He started shaking his head, then looked back toward Rick with wide eyes."Rick..." He whispered.

"It's okay... You'll be okay." Rick promised, hoping he was correct. It would probably be better for Morty to not be conscious during the rest of this anyway.

Morty whimpered and shrunk down as the other alien who had been working on Rick turned toward him and produced a small gun-looking item - likely a tool used to sedate its test subjects.

"I won't fight anymore..." Morty whispered, letting out a tiny squeaking sound and squeezing his eyes shut when the alien drew nearer, not even hesitating for a moment to use the device on the kid. "Don't, please!" Morty gasped, shrinking back as his breaths shook in his chest. He let out a sharp cry as the alien pressed the device up against his chest near his collar and injected the sedative. Morty's eyes rather immediately rolled back and his head and shoulders slumped forward.

Rick glared at the alien as it walked over to a table on the other side of the room and began working on whatever was over there, seemingly mostly writing something. This guy didn't seem to have any remorse for scaring the hell out of a fourteen year old child... but he didn't seem to go out of his way to make sure the kid suffered either. It was all very clinical. Very cold.

Rick knew it wasn't necessarily logical for him to feel angry at these aliens, but he did feel angry. They clearly didn't experience emotions like humans. They didn't understand how painful it was for Morty to be looked at and touched under his clothes. Rick understood that they just didn't have the capacity to empathize with that...

But he was still pissed off. That was his irrational humanity. He couldn't help it.

xxxxxx


	3. Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

xxxxxx

"So... Do you sociopath fuckers like have families or friendships or anything?" Rick glared as he carefully twisted his wrist under the restraint circled around it. The wrist and ankle cuffs were adjustable straps. If he got one arm free, he could get the rest of himself free fairly quickly. He only had to get to his lab coat to get his portal gun. Then he could get himself and Morty out of here. But that was much easier said than done.

"We don't form meaningful bonds with one another as it seems you do." The alien answered.

Rick frowned, staring at the back of the creature as it continued its work. At least whatever it was doing didn't involve experimenting on Rick or Morty at the moment. At least he was finally leaving them alone for the time being.

"Do you have feelings about anything? I mean, you clearly get sick of him when he fights you or panics..." Rick noted. "So you have the capacity to feel negative emotions..."

"I suppose annoyance may be possible." The alien answered, glancing back at Rick.

Rick laughed slightly. Was the guy implying that Rick was annoying him? That was fucking rich. "Do you guys have names? I know you say you don't form bonds, but would you be angry if your buddy got his head ripped off by someone? Would you be mad if someone destroyed all your research? You got feelings about that?"

The alien looked back with narrowed eyes. "We call one-another by names. For convenience and clarity. There's no equivalent in your language, but it'd sound something like 'Kwaasch' as my title, 'Schiil' as my companion's. I would be annoyed if my research were destroyed and if Schiil were damaged, as my work would be more difficult without him."

"Wow. That's cold." Rick scoffed. "And I thought I was a fuckin' bastard. God damn."

"Science is cold." Kwaasch shrugged. "You know this. I assume you designed your star ship. You made it up from Earth and into a part of space very far away from your home planet. You're a scientist too. Most creatures we find out in space are. You wouldn't have made the advances you had if you were fully emotional about it. Science requires experiments, sometimes with live beings as test subjects. Experimentation naturally includes the possibility of pain, injury, side affects... even death."

Rick frowned. That wasn't necessarily inaccurate. Science could be pretty fucking brutal, and was more objective and logical than emotional. Morty had even been Rick's test subject for some of his own science experiments. Sometimes things could get harsh. Sometimes Rick was pretty harsh... But he did have limits, and anything sexual crossed a line he refused to step over. Obviously sex wasn't an issue to these things. They couldn't understand why Morty cried and panicked when they took his clothes or touched his body.

He looked across the room at Morty, who was still slumped forward as much as the straps securing his wrists and ankles to the table allowed. It looked fairly uncomfortable. He was visibly shivering. Dried tear streaks covered his cheeks.

Rick felt his lower lip forming a small pout as he stared at his grandson. Morty wasn't really as into science and logic. He was all emotion. He didn't care what was accurate, correct, scientific. He cared when he felt sad, happy, angry, scared... He didn't see any of this as biology or space exploration from these aliens' perspective. He saw it as scary, an infringement on his personal space.

To Rick, these things weren't a big deal. As long as they weren't planning on keeping him here forever and as long as none of it was particularly painful, what did it matter? He wasn't hung up on nudity or considering certain parts of his body to need more protection than the rest. He'd really be more concerned if they focused too much on his chest, where all his organs were. Who gave a fuck if they poked around his dick? As long as they didn't snap it off, it didn't matter to him.

If Rick were here on is own, he really wouldn't have minded all this that much, but Morty did mind... And seeing his grandson so scared made it more personal to Rick than it should have been too. Rick didn't always care how Morty felt, but when it came to anyone other than himself not respecting the kid, Rick got mad - especially if it was something Morty perceived as sexual. That was a big deal to Morty. Rick could see how much things like that bothered him, and it was one of the only instances where Rick respected Morty's feelings.

Rick felt like he had a duty to protect Morty, to an extent, when he and Morty were traveling together. He got them both into all sorts of dangerous situations, but Rick always got them out of those situations basically unharmed. He wasn't doing great protecting Morty here and now, and it made him feel like fucking shit. It was his fault Morty was here right now. Pretty much everything horrible that happened to Morty was Rick's fault.

He glanced back across the room at the alien, Kwaasch. Rick couldn't deny the fact that these aliens weren't all that different from him. They didn't care that Morty was uncomfortable and scared. Rick didn't normally care either... Maybe if the kid was full-sobbing, shivering, hyperventilating, begging not to be touched... Maybe Rick would back off long enough to ask what the hell the problem was... But more times than he could even remember, Morty expressed clear discomfort or fear and Rick just kept doing whatever they were doing.

He used his judgement over Morty's. If he didn't think it was a big deal, it wasn't a big deal, regardless of how Morty felt.

Science really was cold, and that included Rick. Morty should have been used to this shit by now. All of the shit Rick put him through on a daily basis really should have toughened him up a bit, but it hardly had. Morty was still hung up on emotions, irrational fear, shame over nudity - even when among beings who considered it normal.

Kwaasch made his way over to Rick, wordlessly injecting a needle into his arm and taking a blood sample, walking over and placing it in a cupboard and then doing the same to Morty, carefully labeling the shelves as he went. Rick noticed there were a lot of samples already in there, all labeled with various symbols Rick didn't recognize.

"How many earth humans have you come across?" Rick wondered.

"Forty-seven. A mixture of male and female. Your offspring is the first child." He nodded toward Morty. "Likely the first non-scientist. The most frantic by far. Others have expressed this unease, this fear you speak of, but not to this degree. I've seen tears shed, but his are most certainly the most frantic - the most emotionally pained, as you say."

"Well, kids get scared... Children do. Earth children are scared of being fucking experimented on." Rick frowned. "It's cruel that you're involving him in this. You know that concept? Cruelty?"

"Yes. I do." Kwaasch nodded. "It would be cruel to torture a creature simply to see it suffer, to enjoy its anguish. To inflict needless pain without purpose. To deprive it of sustenance over a long period. I understand humans feel pain - as most creatures do. I understand you require nutrition, oxygen, water... I wouldn't purposefully deprive you of that. I would not hurt you, nor him, out of anger or a desire to enjoy the pain I'd witness."

"Well, this is painful to him." Rick glared. "Emotions can be as painful - even more painful than physical shit. You're inflicting pain on him by doing this."

Kwaasch shook his head no, but didn't make any further comment on the subject.

"What did you do with the others? The other humans, the other creatures you find out in space? Where are they?" Rick frowned.

"Some were released. Some we kept for further studies. We retained a few humans for further tests, but many of them perished. We're still learning how humans survive. They didn't survive well here..." Kwaasch shrugged. "Even ones we planned on releasing... We're still learning."

Rick stared. "Well... Did you ask them how they survive? Jesus fucking Christ, man... I can answer any questions you have. Humans need food, water, oxygen, temperatures of a certain height... It's fucking cold in here. Morty's shivering." He nodded toward the boy. "We shiver when we're cold..."

Kwaasch turned toward Morty and stared. "Are there health consequences to humans becoming chilled?" He wondered.

"Yes." Rick nodded, choosing in that moment to exaggerate hopefully enough to help Morty out a little. "We can survive it, but only for so long. It starts to wear us down fairly quick. That shivering is a sign of his body slowly shutting down. It's slow enough that you wouldn't notice until it's too late. That's probably what happened to your other human specimens."

"You don't shiver." Kwaasch noted.

Rick shrugged and shook his head. "I hardly get cold. I'm usually intoxicated... And I barely feel shit at this point thanks to years of losing faith in the entirety of life in the universe and even more years of heavy drug use. Morty's a little kid. He still expects people to be decent. He's innocent, naive, emotional. He hasn't had the world completely fuck him over to the point where he'd be surprised if it didn't. He's more fragile. You can't put him through as much as me. He gets stressed too, which also damages his health."

"That's why humans wear the false skin? For the ones whose bodies feel chill?" Kwaasch asked.

"Yes. And his body is really susceptible to it. We have that shame, the embarrassment we feel when someone sees us naked, but it stems from a survival instinct. Our bodies are virtually hairless and we're mammals... So we make up for it with clothes - or as you call it - false skin..." Rick noted.

Kwaasch nodded, scanning the room with his many eyes, settling on Rick's lab coat lying on a table across the space. It was the only article of clothing the two arrived with that hadn't been lasered away.

Rick's eyes widened as he watched the creature head for it. Maybe he should have convinced the guy to give the coat to him instead, so he could get them the fuck out of there. Morty having it would be nice for the boy's comfort and dignity to be spared, but it wouldn't really help them. The kid likely wasn't capable of getting anything useful out of the pockets while tied up, even if he happened to awaken at an otherwise good moment.

"You have to untie him to put it on him." Rick noted as the alien walked over to Morty with the coat and kind of just stared down at him.

Surprisingly, Kwaasch started undoing the straps, allowing Morty to slide down the table and slump down onto the floor, then not-so-carefully shoving the boy's arms into the coat sleeves.

Rick felt like his heart was going to pound out of his chest, but he remained calm on the outside. If Morty was kept untied, it would only take a few minutes alone during which Morty could manage to wake up long enough to undo even just one of the straps around Rick's wrists... Then Rick could get them the fuck out of here.

Rick frowned, his brow furrowing as he watched the alien pick Morty up. Kwaasch carried the boy over to another table and laid him face-down on it, with the boy's legs hanging over the edge. Rick noticed now that Morty's wrists and ankles were very red, even turning purple. He'd bruised them up pretty significantly struggling against the straps he had been tethered to the table with.

"What are you doing?" Rick wondered, feeling anxiety building in his chest again.

"Collecting a semen sample." Kwaasch noted casually, walking back over to the other table and pulling out a drawer. He took out a slender probe about six inches long before pushing the drawer back in.

Rick grimaced as his eyes zeroed in on the long, smooth rod in the alien's hand. He wasn't a fucking naive idiot. He knew what the item was for. If Morty happened to wake up in time to see it - or worse, feel it - he was going to be completely fucking terrified, horrifically traumatized.

The alien held the probe in one of its hands, made his way over to another drawer, and took out a sample collection cup, then headed back toward Morty, placing the items on the table next to the boy's unconscious body. "I'd describe the process as electro-ejaculation, in your language. It's a quick, simple process used to extract semen from many mammals. This rod is inserted into the anus and-"

"Yep. Yeah. I got it. I know what it is... Uh..." Rick grimaced. "You don't know how to get humans to not fucking die... You can't just fucking keep us alive for more than a couple weeks, but you know how to do this... Great. Fuckin' real suspicious order of priorities you got going on here..."

"Human reproduction is similar to our own. We still haven't mastered this art in other species. It won't take much vigorous stimulation of the prostate to produce a sample." Kwaasch promised. "The rod is smooth, specifically designed to fit semi-comfortably into the anus of very human-like creatures, glides in easily-"

"Yeah- That's great. You can't do this though. Not on him. He's too young... It won't work... Human children can't produce semen..." Rick lied, hoping to spare Morty from this if he could. Rick was absolutely certain that Morty would be extremely traumatized - even devastated - if the alien performed this process on him.

"I'll test it and see." Kwaasch noted, pushing the material of Rick's lab coat up over Morty's waist. "If it doesn't work, I can make a note of it in my documents. He seems to be nearing sexual maturity at the very least. I estimate the sample will be able to be procured through this method."

"Well, test it on me first." Rick suggested. "Just... Kinda shove him off to the side. He's not fuckin' going anywhere... Just untie me... I know it'll work on me. You should get the easy one done first, right?"

Kwaasch shook his head. "He's already unbound. It would be illogical to not just get it done now. It will be quick and painless. As I've said before, I don't participate in cruelty. This won't harm his body. The brains of some mammals have even shown an element of joy when this process is performed."

Rick forced a slight laugh. "Well, yeah... I could see that... But some mammals are gonna feel like you're fucking raping them and they'll feel the exact opposite. This is another one of those emotion things - human shame and all that. Sexual things really get us fucked up. If you want it to happen, it's the best thing ever. If you don't, it's the worst thing ever. We don't like doing shit, or having shit done to us if it wasn't our fuckin' idea."

At this point, Morty made a small noise and flinched very subtly. Rick could see his eye-lids struggling to open. He was choosing a really fucking awful time to wake up.

"Fuck..." Rick winced under his breath, pulling at his wrists and looking around the room for anything that could help. "Uh... I need water..." He called out, forcing himself to start coughing dramatically.

Kwaasch glanced over at Rick with a frown.

Rick closed his eyes halfway and continued coughing, making elaborate gasping noises. "I need water!" He screamed. "I'm dying... I'm dangerously dehydrated from drinking only alcohol for the full day preceding this. I need water, immediately, or I'll die!"

Kwaasch shook his head and looked back down at Morty, reaching a hand under him and pulling a small ledge out from under the table. He placed the sample cup there in a pre-made groove, then took Morty's penis in his hand and angled it toward the cup.

"Stop-" Morty whimpered in a tiny voice, still seemingly not fully aware of what was going on around him as his eyes fluttered. "G-get away..." Morty whispered, his voice small, weak, almost slurring. The sedative must have still been at work. He looked and sounded half-asleep, disoriented, confused.

"God damn it..." Rick grumbled in a low voice, pulling rather harshly at his wrists. He had to do something. Morty was waking up... He was going to become aware of himself while this sick fuckin' alien was sliding a somewhat large probe into his ass and forcing him to ejaculate into a cup. He couldn't just sit here and let the kid wake up during this. Morty would be so fucking scared, so disgusted and disturbed.

Rick gritted his teeth together as he watched Morty, flinching and groaning slightly as his fingers twitched subtly.

"It won't injure him. Calm your emotions, please." Kwaasch advised as he picked up the rod and put his hand on one of Morty's butt cheeks.

"R-Rick..." Morty's tiny voice breathed as the boy's eyes struggled to open. "Wh-... Where..." He whispered.

Closing his eyes and grinding his teeth, Rick straightened his fingers and pulled on his arm. He was so close to being able to slide his hand out of the restraint. He just needed to get around his thumb. The bones connecting his thumb to his hand were the main obstacle here. If they just weren't in the fucking way...

Morty let out another small, shaky moan. "Rick?" He whispered again. "Wh-what's happening?" He breathed.

Rick held his breath, and as hard as he possibly could tugged his hand, ignoring the pain, effectively dislocating his thumb, but finally freeing his hand. Ignoring the sharp pain shooting down his arm, Rick reached over and un-did the strap on his other wrist, then began quickly working on the ones on his ankles.

"What... What are y-you doing?" Morty whimpered, flinching under Kwaasch's hands as the alien held two on his back and butt cheek and used a third to position the probe. "Wh-what is that?" The boy whispered.

"Keep still so I am not forced to sedate you again." Kwaasch instructed as Morty struggled weakly under his hands. "This will only take a few minutes if your body responds as I estimate."

"Pl-please..." Morty whispered in a shaky voice, flinching and trying to pull his legs back closed. "Don't touch me... G-get off of me... Please! W-what are y-you doing?" He gasped, tears brimming in his tired eyes. "Wh-what are you g-gonna do?"

Rick tried to work faster on untying his restraints. His whole arm throbbed thanks to his dislocated thumb. Morty clearly still wasn't even sure what was happening, but Rick was. He had to get free and get this fucking alien away from his grandson, fast. Before Morty had to suffer any part of what the creature was planning to do to him.

"Relax. Your human emotions are such an obstacle for your species. I'm only collecting a semen sample. I'll insert this rod into your anus, you'll feel a stimulating sensation and will eject the sample into the cup. It's very quick and painless." The alien explained, placing the rod behind Morty and bending down slightly to better see what he was doing, preparing to demonstrate exactly what he just described.

"No!" Morty whimpered softly, clearly still effected by the sedative given to him before. His struggles were weak, clumsy, basically useless. "Please don't!" He cried softly.

Rick finally got his ankles free, and growled under his breath as he rushed over toward his grandson, shoving Kwaasch back as hard as possible, then grabbing toward his lab coat, snatching up his laser gun and pointing it at the alien.

Kwaasch stared at him, raising all four of his hands up defensively. He still held the probe in one hand. "Do not assassinate me." He spoke in a very calm tone. He didn't seem scared. More like he felt inconvenienced by this. "Lower the weapon. I was merely collecting samples for research. I did not hurt the child. Allow me to take the samples, collect all of the data we need, and then we will release the two of you."

Rick glared, then fired the gun. The alien disappeared in a cloud of dust and ash, then Rick turned toward the door, pointing the gun in that direction, knowing the second alien could be coming back in at any moment. Or the third... Or however many others might be on board.

"Rick..." Morty whimpered, his voice sounding very tired and shaky.

Rick kept the gun held up in one hand and used the other to pull his lab coat back down over Morty's butt and thighs. Morty was so short that the coat covered almost all of him. "You're okay." Rick breathed, placing his hand comfortingly on Morty's shoulder as he continued to focus on the door with his gun. "I'm gonna kill the other ones... Then we're going to get our fucking space ship and get the hell out of here."

It had been his original plan to just get the portal gun and get himself and Morty out as quickly as he could, leave behind anything and everything but themselves... But he didn't want to leave the ship behind, and he didn't have to if he just killed these guys first... With his gun in-hand and only one doorway to this room, unless forty aliens barged in all at once, there was really no way to fail here. He didn't want to leave his whole space ship for no reason.

As Rick stared at the door frame, aiming his gun, ready to kill whoever walked through, he heard his own breaths echoing in his ears. He was kind of a lot more frantic about this than he expected of himself. He was supposed to be the rational one here.

Maybe it was the fact that his thumb was dislocated and excruciating pain was radiating up his entire arm. Maybe it was the fact that Morty seemed so upset, the fact that Rick explained to the alien that medical tests like these were traumatizing to the kid and the alien didn't care. Rick understood that these creatures' brains functioned differently than his own. He wanted to give them at least that much credit... But he was still pissed off. These fuckers saw Morty shaking and crying and they just didn't fucking care...

Morty was still shaking and crying.

With a raised eyebrow and a frown, Rick glanced down at the boy, still lying face-down on the table, with his legs dangling over the edge. The sedative he'd been given didn't seem to have worn off enough yet for him to even try to get up. It must have been a pretty powerful one.

"Rick, can we go now?" Morty breathed, reaching his hand weakly toward Rick, seemingly wanting Rick to grab it and give it a reassuring squeeze.

Rick frowned down at his grandson. "Almost." Rick patted Morty's shoulder again, ignoring his outstretched hand, not wanting to give the boy too much comfort. He didn't need Morty thinking Rick actually cared about him, whether he really did care or not.

"I wanna go home, Rick..." Morty whimpered, weakly drawing his arms close to his chest as he remained lying where he was. The boy squeezed his eyes shut and let out a tiny, breathless sob.

Shaking his head, Rick rubbed his hand lightly against Morty's arm. "Soon, buddy, okay? I've just gotta kill the other two so we can get to our ship without them fuckin' abducting us again on the way out. I'm not leaving without my ship, and I don't want to take a chance of them following. Gotta make sure they're all dead."

"Pl-please, Rick..." Morty choked, his sobs not even coming close to dying down. He was so fucking frantic. "You c-can build a new space ship. You built that one really fast... J-just leave the ship... Please! G-get the portal gun and l-let's go!"

Rick frowned, shaking his head. He looked back toward the door. It was beginning to look like he was going to have to go further into the ship to find the other guys - and make sure there weren't even more of them. As much as Morty's whimpering cries were actually making him feel bad, Rick couldn't sacrifice all the work he'd put into the space ship, all the sand he and Morty had collected sitting inside it. He didn't want to leave it behind.

"You're okay, Morty." Rick promised, keeping his hand on Morty's back, glancing down at the bruising and swelling around his thumb where he'd dislocated it. He was gonna have to deal with that soon too... "I've got my gun now. They can't hurt you. I'll kill 'em if they get too close, okay? They caught me off-guard the first time. I got this under control now, so don't freak the fuck out. Just chill and I'll deal with it."

Morty sniffed and shrunk down. "I wanna go home..." He whispered.

Rick nodded slightly, staring back at the door frame. Maybe the aliens knew Rick got free. Maybe they weren't planning on coming in here at all... Maybe they were calling for backup. Rick needed to get this sorted out - fast.

xxxxxx


	4. Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

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Morty felt like he was in a fog, but a rather terrifying one. Things were muddled and unclear, but still really scary. He felt tired, confused, practically unable to move. Rick was standing nearby, refusing to just get them out of here while he could. He held one hand on Morty's back, which was kind of reassuring, but still not enough. Morty wanted out of here. He wanted to be at home... Now.

Morty was lying face-down on a table, with his legs hanging over the edge, exactly as the alien had left him. He was at least wearing Rick's lab coat now - for some reason - but he was otherwise naked, and was kind of cold and terrified.

Before Rick finally somehow got free and saved Morty from the medical experimentation, the alien was preparing to shove some kind of rod up his butt. The fucking guy explained it more fully - something about getting a semen sample, but Morty didn't quite get what he was talking about. All he knew was the alien was going to put the rod in his butt, and Morty definitely didn't want that. Fortunately, Rick saved him from it before it could happen.

But Rick wouldn't move on yet. He wouldn't get them out of here, and that scared Morty quite a bit. He didn't want to risk more aliens coming and finishing what the other started. He just wanted the fuck out of here. What if more aliens came? Shot Rick with a tranquilizer, or worse - shot and killed him? Then they could do whatever they wanted with Morty... Until he was out of this space ship, he wasn't going to be safe... and he couldn't even move! If Rick weren't part of the equation, the aliens could easily hurt Morty in any way imaginable, because he was still drugged, so exhausted he couldn't even push himself up off the table.

Morty blinked his heavy eyelids open as he breathed in shaky, tearful breaths. He looked up toward Rick, who held his laser gun up and stared at the room's only door, waiting for the other alien to return.

There was a big chunk of time missing from Morty's view of this nightmare. He remembered the aliens halting Rick's ship in mid-space, practically crashing it, knocking Rick unconscious. Then the aliens grabbed him, drugged him... He woke up later to the creatures using a laser to remove his clothing, grabbing and groping all over him... Then they knocked him out again. Then he woke up here on the table, wearing Rick's coat, but it was up around his waist, giving the alien access to do whatever he wanted down there. How long has the alien had him like this? What all had it done to him while he wasn't awake?

"R-Rick... D-did he do anything bad to me?" Morty whispered. He was unconscious for who knew how long... What if the alien did stuff to him that Morty didn't even know about? He woke up to the horrifying creature holding a rod, getting ready to force it in his butt. What if he did stuff before that? He supposed as long as it wasn't physically harmful, it didn't really matter if the guy touched him or stuck things in his butt. If he couldn't feel it and didn't remember it happening, what harm would have been done?

He knew it was logical to just not worry about it, especially if he wasn't injured and wouldn't even have a memory of it. Rick wouldn't have cared if it happened to him. Morty was being dumb to even care... But he did care. He didn't want to have had things done to him while he was passed out. He really just wanted confirmation that it didn't happen. He hoped it didn't.

"You're okay, Morty... He didn't do much... Blood samples and shit... Nothing bad... Listen, Bud... I'm gonna have to go find the other two, make sure there's not any more of 'em. So hang tight, okay?" Rick forced a smile down at him and squeezed his shoulder.

"Wh-" Morty gasped, feeling his eyes widen and his heart sink. "R-Rick... No... D-don't leave me here!" He reached weakly toward Rick with trembling, exhausted fingers, but Rick was too fast. He was out of reach within half a second.

"I'll be right back!" Rick nodded, running off before Morty could express fully his fears of what might happen.

Morty breathed shakily and closed his eyes, somehow hoping that if one of the aliens came in here, it wouldn't see him if he could see it. What if they killed Rick? And then Morty would be left here all alone, to be experimented on forever... And they weren't simple, non-invasive experiments either. That one Rick killed already flat out told him he was going to stick something in Morty's butt...

He shivered as he pulled his arms close to himself and tried to listen to the sounds within the huge spaceship. He wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to know if Rick was okay, if he was going to be okay...

Morty groaned as he moved his arms, trying to push himself up. He felt so exhausted. Closing his eyes and exhaling, Morty settled on just remaining where he was. He couldn't move. Whatever drug he'd been given was still pretty heavily at work, weighing him down, keeping his body mostly asleep even when his mind wasn't.

Morty winced and shrunk down when he heard a noise from somewhere nearby - another room, but still close. He heard crashing noises, yelling... Was that Rick's voice? Was he alright?

With his lower lip trembling, Morty stared toward the door. He wondered how many aliens were on the ship. It was just two in here. Three before. Three total that he had actually seen... But what if the ship had dozens, even hundreds of them? What if more ships were nearby? What if this one sent out a message to others and escape became literally impossible?

Morty breathed in and out shaky, quick breaths. He was starting to feel very lightheaded. Maybe he wasn't breathing deep enough. Maybe the drug he'd been given might kill him... Maybe they hadn't used it on enough humans yet to know that it was lethal.

His breaths caught in his throat when two large figures made their way through the doorway. They each looked around the room in confusion. Maybe they didn't know Rick was on the loose.

Morty couldn't even bring himself to say anything, or to call out to Rick as he stared at the aliens, hoping they wouldn't notice him. Maybe they really wouldn't... He was practically buried in Rick's coat.

"Where's Kwaasch?" The first alien asked. "Schiil said he was working in here..."

"Schiil also said there were two Earthlings. A child and an elder. Where's the elder?" The second alien wondered.

Morty swallowed as he stared. He was somewhat sure neither of these two were aliens he had seen before. Maybe Kwaasch and Schiil were the two he'd encountered earlier.

"What was he doing with this one?" The first alien asked as it made its way over to Morty. "He just left him here unrestrained... But the elder's gone..."

Morty whimpered and shrunk down as he felt the alien grab at his arms, pulling Rick's lab coat off of him and handing it to the other alien. "Looks like he was preparing to collect a semen sample." The alien noted, grabbing up the rod that had been left on the table next to Morty.

"Should we finish his work or put the child in one of the holding cells?" The second alien wondered.

Morty shook his head and tried to push himself up again. "Rick!" He screamed, no longer feeling safe to just keep quiet, wait, and hope for the best. He wasn't going to just lie back and let these aliens assault him, whether they considered it science or not. It was assault to him. "Rick, help me! Heeelllp!" He screamed.

"This creature is very frantic." The alien holding onto him noted. "Perhaps Kwaasch went to the lab to concoct a muscle-relaxer. I would surmise inserting the electro-ejaculation rod while the child is struggling against it would damage the rectum."

Morty choked out another shaky sob. These aliens were so clinical. They didn't seem to give a shit that he was scared. Everything with them was logic and science. No feeling... Kind of like Rick only worse. At least Rick had an ounce of humanity in him. He had the capacity to care about other people's feelings and pain, even if he didn't always bother doing so.

"He's partially sedated still, it seems." The second alien noticed, glancing under the table and reaching one of his four arms down under Morty.

"Don't touch me!" Morty screamed, flinching away and breathing in and out shaking breaths as he watched the alien move his hand back up. He hadn't been reaching toward Morty after all. He was holding an empty cup now. It must have been on some sort of smaller table or ledge below him.

"The sample hasn't been taken." The second alien noted, looking at the empty cup.

"Let's put him in the holding cell. Perhaps Kwaasch had a method to this." The first alien suggested, grabbing Morty by his arms.

"Rick, help me! Rick!" Morty sobbed as the alien tossed him up over his shoulder and held him there with a large hand holding him down over one of his butt cheeks. Its grip was fairly rough too. Morty couldn't help but to notice its fingers were spread all the way across the cheek, curling down embarrassingly. He was pretty sure the alien wasn't trying to scare the hell out of him. It was just gripping him in a convenient way... But it did scare him.

Morty choked out frightened whimpers as the alien carried him out of the room, completely ignoring all of his pleas and struggles. It didn't seem at all worried that Morty was screaming for Rick. It didn't seem that concerned that Rick was unaccounted for.

"Please let me go!" Morty begged, his voice shaky and breathless.

He looked around the hall as he was carried. The ship was so big... The walls were lined with huge cylindrical vats of liquid, like giant jars. Each of the containers contained preserved specimens labeled in a language Morty couldn't even begin to comprehend.

Though it was horrible, terrifying, even nauseating to see so many different creatures suspended in the preserving substance, Morty couldn't look away. None of them were animals he had ever seen before. Some looked close - but just not quite like any animals from earth.

There was a thing that looked kind of like an elephant, only way too small and bright green, with three trunks and no eyes. There was a human-like creature with very red skin, with no arms and its eyes on stalks. Its mouth was huge, turned down into a frown.

Morty whimpered. Were they planning on putting him into one of these jars? They said something earlier about keeping him... Is that what they meant?

Smaller vats stacked on top of each other contained little creatures, things that resembled snakes, mice, and birds. A few even contained plants - or maybe animals that just happened to look rather plant-like.

It wasn't until he noticed one that was most definitely a human from Earth that Morty started screaming - full-screaming... He couldn't help himself. He couldn't tell himself that it wasn't helpful, that he'd just annoy his captors and probably end up hurt... When he saw the other human suspended in liquid, with his dead eyes staring wide and fearfully ahead, his mouth hanging open almost as though he had died mid-scream, Morty couldn't help but to scream too.

"Oh my god! Heeelllp! Help me! Heeellllppp!" Morty screamed.

The alien carrying him gripped him tighter. Its fingers dug in painfully as it exhaled a frustrated breath. "I don't want to sedate him again. He's already quite heavily drugged."

"He needs to cease the noise." The second alien noted. "The volume of his cries is physically painful. My auditory sensors are very overloaded with this."

Morty tried to stop crying so his captors wouldn't get angry and hurt him, but he was just so fucking scared. Where was Rick? He'd called out to him so many times. Morty was screaming, crying... Why didn't Rick hear him? Was he dead? Did another of the aliens kill him? Was Morty on his own now?

Morty turned his head and sputtered as the second alien shoved something into his mouth and tied it around the back of his head. It felt somewhat soft, but also firm, kind of like the foam that would be used to make a mattress. The item was clearly meant to keep him quiet.

Morty whimpered a shaky, muffled cry as the aliens reached their destination, a room with several small cells and cages. Morty noticed other creatures were housed here too - living ones. They stared out of the doors of their cells with huge, fearful eyes. Some backed away as the aliens walked past, obviously fearful of being taken out of the temporarily safe confines of the cages.

Staring with wide eyes, Morty looked around. If Rick saved him, he'd have to save these things too... They couldn't just leave them here. Of course, it seemed very possible that Rick wasn't going to be saving anyone. Morty had screamed for him, and Rick never came.

"Put him with the Flebb." The second alien suggested, opening a cell that another creature was already in. "We need to start preserving some of these. We're running out of space to store the live ones."

Morty let out a shaking cry as the alien shoved him into the cell. He let himself fall down to the floor and curled himself in a small ball. Rick was nowhere to be found. Morty didn't hear or see a trace of him. What if he was gone? What if he was dead?

If Rick was dead, Morty was probably going to die too... Likely only after suffering through more invasive, embarrassing experiments. They'd tie him back down, collect all sorts of samples, maybe hair, teeth, parts of his organs... They'd do what they had tried to do before - before Rick saved him from it. Without Rick, no one was going to stop them. They'd put that weird thing in his butt, and it would hurt and he'd feel shame and fear and panic... He'd probably never feel at ease again - not until they finally killed him.

He didn't want to die though. He just wanted out of here - with Rick. He wanted Rick.

Morty sobbed painful, muffled cries as the two aliens walked away. He reached up toward the back of his head, trying to untie or unclasp the thing wrapped around his head, keeping him from screaming or speaking. It was so firmly pressed into his mouth that he couldn't tear it down or spit it out without undoing whatever it was fastened with. It was practically gagging him at the moment.

He was so tired. His fingers fumbled against the strap securing the gag around his head. It didn't seem like he was going to be able to get it undone. He felt almost like he was wearing huge, disabling gloves, like his fingers were a new concept to him. He couldn't get them to work properly.

He let out another frustrated, shaking sob as he grabbed uselessly at the strap running along the back of his head. He felt like he could barely breathe. The gag filled his entire mouth and his nose was getting stuffy from crying so hard. He couldn't breathe! He was going to suffocate!

Morty flinched and let out another shaking, muffled scream as he felt something touch his shoulder. He shrunk back, staring at the creature he was in the cell with, a small-ish being - larger than him, but still small compared to adult humans. It had two stocky arms, a tiny mouth, and one huge eye.

The creature raised its hands defensively and backed off, saying something Morty couldn't even begin to understand, then gesturing toward its own mouth.

Shaking his head, Morty shrunk back. He could barely move. His arms shook as he tried to crawl away. He was still so exhausted and disoriented. Morty shook his head and stared as tears rolled down his cheeks. Was it trying to help him? He couldn't tell. Obviously the fact that it backed off when Morty was clearly frightened of it was a good sign.

It said the same thing again and gestured toward its mouth, nodding.

Morty felt his lip trembling as the creature reached down slowly, feeling around behind Morty's head and unclasping the gag.

Morty breathed in and out, rather frantic gulps as he stared back at the other alien. "Wh-" He started, frowning when he realized he wouldn't be able to communicate with it easily. They clearly didn't speak the same language.

Shrinking down and whimpering again, Morty looked up and around himself when he heard more commotion from other rooms on the ship. Maybe it was Rick... Maybe he was killing all the aliens on board. Maybe there were a lot more of them than he had anticipated. Maybe that was what was taking him so long.

He looked back down when he felt the creature he was sharing his cell with place its hands on his shoulders. It was still talking, words Morty couldn't even begin to guess what they meant. It seemed to be trying to help though, maybe trying to be reassuring.

Morty sniffed back tears as he remained on the floor, shrinking down slightly, feeling himself shiver as the strange alien rubbed its hands up and down over his arms. Maybe it was trying to warm him up. Morty was certainly fucking cold, and the alien's hands were very warm, almost like tiny heaters.

It kept talking to him as it moved its hands over his arms, reaching one hand up and wiping away tears from Morty's cheeks before putting its hands back on the boy's arms. It was still speaking. Very weird, rolling syllables that didn't sound like anything Morty had ever heard before. It spoke in a low tone though. It wasn't yelling. It didn't seem angry.

"I d-" Morty started, cutting himself off with a frightened shiver. "I don't kn-know what you're saying..." He whispered, blinking as he stared at his cell-mate.

"Morty!" Rick's voice called out from somewhere nearby.

"Rick!?" Morty called back, looking away from the other creature in front of him and toward the cell door. "Rick! I'm down here! Help me!" He screamed."Rick, please!" His voice shook.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Rick grumbled as he made his way down the stairs and into the room with all the holding cells. "There's a lot of these fuckers... I think I got 'em all, or at least- What the fuck is this thing?" Rick frowned as he held his laser gun up, pointing it toward Morty's cell-mate.

"No!" Morty gasped, moving his arms up to block Rick from killing the creature. "He helped me! Rick, he helped me! D-don't kill him..." Morty breathed.

Rick frowned, but nodded. "Okay. Fair enough. Let's get the fuck outta here. Where's my lab coat?" His shoulders slumped as he narrowed his eyes and looked his grandson up and down.

Morty shook his head. "B-back in the other room..." He whispered. "Rick, please don't leave me alone again..." He whimpered.

Rick continued looking Morty up and down, obviously trying to detect if Morty had received any further injuries since Rick saw him last. "Did they hurt you?" He glared. "Did they do anything... like... fucked up?"

Morty shook his head. "No... I'm just scared..." He whimpered, feeling his lower lip tremble as tears filled his eyes. "Rick, they could have if they wanted to. Th-they talked about it... They decided not to, but they could have. W-why did you leave me in there alone?"

Rick frowned. "I didn't know there were so many... Don't worry about it. You're okay..."

Morty sniffed back tears. He was fucking lucky they didn't do anything to him. It was no thanks to Rick that he was okay. The aliens walked in there with Morty practically naked, lying face-down on a table with a butt-rod right next to him. They even discussed doing it. He heard them talking about it, deciding whether to shove it in his butt or not. Rick wasn't there to stop them. Morty was practically passed out.

"They could have done it, Rick." Morty whispered again. "You weren't there to keep them from doing it."

"Alright... Well, we'll stick together from here. Okay?" Rick nodded reaching out toward the cell door and frowning. "How do you unlock these?"

"I don't know..." Morty whispered. "Rick, they had all kinds of bodies in jars in the hall... Dead bodies. There was a Earth human..."

"Yeah. In formaldehyde, or something like it." Rick noted. "I'll just laser 'em open." He shot off the lock on Morty's cell, then started on the others. "Listen, weird, cyclops guy..." He looked back at the alien who shared Morty's cell. "I'm leaving you in charge of all this shit... Help these fuckin' things get back home, okay?"

The alien stared back at Rick, clearly not understanding.

Rick exhaled an annoyed breath and pulled the collar off his neck, showing it to the other alien. "Put your language in there." He demanded.

The alien simply stared down at the device and shook its head.

"Uggh. Whatever. We'll just release them... They're figure it out. Maybe they can pirate this ship and become like a whole fuckin' space civilization. That'd be cool." Rick decided, walking around and lasering all the other locks then heading back toward Morty. "Come on." He grabbed Morty's wrist and starting pulling him along.

Morty whimpered as he stumbled after Rick, still feeling very exhausted from the sedative that he'd been given which hadn't quite worn off. Rick must have noticed Morty was barely able to keep up, because he was quick to lift his grandson up in his arms and carry him.

"A-are we going home now?" Morty breathed, feeling his eyelids growing heavy. Whatever the aliens had put him to sleep with before was still very much still at work, and now that he wasn't absolutely fucking terrified, it felt even stronger.

"Yep. Just gotta get my lab coat, find our ship, and get the fuck outta here." Rick nodded.

Morty closed his eyes and exhaled as he leaned against Rick's chest, unable to bring himself to even care that they were both naked. He was just happy Rick was holding him, that it wasn't a scary alien wanting to do horrible experiments on him. Morty didn't have to worry what Rick would do. Maybe he was being naive, but he was pretty sure he was safe now...

Safe enough to let his mind slip back into unconsciousness.

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	5. Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

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Frowning, Rick glanced down at Morty as he carried his grandson back toward the room the aliens had first taken them to. The kid was completely passed out, thanks to some combination of the sedative the aliens had given him and the stress and fear he was clearly feeling.

Morty's hands were in loose fists near his face and he was somewhat curled in as though he'd been trying to get even closer to Rick right before he passed out. His skin felt cold and he shivered in Rick's arms, but seemed to be asleep.

Sometimes Rick wondered why Morty trusted him at all. Obviously Rick was the closest thing to safety here, now.. Next to whatever the fuck that thing was in his cell that was practically petting him when Rick showed up... But Rick wasn't the embodiment of safety. He got Morty into so much shit all the time and didn't exactly often respect Morty's opinions when the boy got scared of things Rick didn't feel the same way about. Rick even was almost tempted to tell Morty to suck it up and shut up when he was scared of the aliens taking his clothes and shoving a probe up his ass...

But for some reason, every once in a while, one of Morty's emotions made Rick actually feel bad. Rick didn't care that the aliens saw him naked. He really didn't care that they touched his body. He wouldn't even have minded testing out the electro-ejaculator - in fact he was probably going to take it with him when they left - but he could see the fear in Morty's eyes and body-language. He heard the fear in Morty's cries... It was different than fearing injury or death. It was worse, because it was personal. It was an entirely different fear than anything Rick would have brushed off and accused Morty of being a baby over.

Morty was scared of almost everything. Rick had learned long ago not to take most of the boy's fears seriously. But his fear of things he perceived to be sexual was a different type of fear. Rick could convince himself to treat Morty's fear of being hurt or even of being killed as irrational and ridiculous, but he respected that Morty feared being sexually assaulted. He had drawn a line there, and these aliens crossed it.

"Rick..." Morty breathed as his little fingers twitched against Rick's chest.

"What?" Rick frowned down at his grandson as they reached the lab.

"Are we going home now?" Morty whispered, shivering slightly and squeezing his eyes closed even tighter than they already were.

"Soon. I'm getting our shit and making sure these pricks don't have our blood samples or any data on us. Think I killed all the ones on this ship, but I don't want any of their buddies tracking us down." Rick answered, putting Morty down carefully on the table he had been on before.

He picked up his lab coat off the floor nearby, took out his portal gun, and wrapped the coat around Morty's shoulders. Morty whimpered softly and shivered, but otherwise didn't respond. Rick hoped the sedative they had given to him didn't have side affects. He seemed so fucking tired.

"Hang in there, buddy. We'll be outta here in like ten minutes." Rick promised, taking both his portal gun and laser gun over to the table the alien had been using to take notes and store samples. He put the guns down on the surface and began going through the pages of notes.

All of the writing was of course in a language Rick couldn't even begin to comprehend, but he knew which files were his and Morty's based on the fact that they were the only two open on the table. He took them and started tearing the paper-like sheets into strips, then moved on to the electronic tablet/scanner device. If any data was collected through that, he didn't want it to remain, so he tossed it to the floor and stepped on it, producing a cracking sound.

Rick stepped again, and again, crushing the screen, then spit on it and turned toward the cabinet of blood and other fluid samples.

"Ugh..." Rick grimaced as he looked at the rows of tiny containers. They were labeled in the same unknown language, so he couldn't read what the samples were, but he could guess. There were so many. Definitely lots more than just the ones taken from Rick and Morty today... and they definitely weren't all blood.

One by one, Rick picked up the glass vials and started throwing them at the wall, letting them all break, slide down the surface, and pool on the floor below. They couldn't use the samples if they were all mixed.

"Rick?" Morty's tiny voice whispered again.

Rick rolled his eyes, then threw another couple of vials at the wall. "You're so god damned needy, Morty. Damn. I said we're fucking leaving. Just lay there and wait."

"Rick!" Morty whimpered, sounding a bit more shaky and scared this time.

Frowning, Rick turned toward the table where he'd left his grandson. His shoulders slumped and he exhaled loudly as he saw one of the aliens standing over Morty, holding onto the boy's hand as Morty weakly tried to pull it away.

"Rick..." Morty's lip trembled as he tugged at his arm and tried to crawl back. The alien had four arms, much, much bigger than Morty's two... And Morty was still drugged. It was clear he wasn't going to get away from the alien any time soon.

"Why are you destroying our work?" The alien frowned, glaring at Rick as it held onto Morty's hand tightly and grabbed the boy's other arm with another of its hands.

Rick shook his head. "Because I fucking want to. Same reason you abduct people and do god damned experiments on them."

"That's not the same. We do experiments on other creatures to learn. You're destroying our research, our fluid samples... Are you not a scientist?" The alien frowned.

"Yeah. I'm also a dumbass human, and I get emotional - as in pissed off - when someone fucks with me and my grandson. Get away from him so I don't have to fucking kill you." Rick stared.

The alien narrowed its eyes, squeezing Morty's hand tighter and pulling the boy closer with its other hand as Morty tried to shrink away. "I've been trying hard to learn more about some of the creatures we've found who have this ability to show compassion and care to one-another..." The alien went on. "Who cry without feeling pain - just because they think that pain is imminent... So irrational, to become distressed over what may happen rather than what is happening... To fear touches that are not painful."

"Having the ability to consider a possible future isn't irrational. It's called fuckin' planning..." Rick frowned. "I'm serious right now though... You gotta fuckin' let go of my grandson's hand before I shoot you in the fuckin' face." Rick took slow, cautious steps toward where he had left his laser gun, surprised that the alien didn't seem like he was going to stop him.

"Humans, flebbs, gritchwiiggs, frizzors, krinches... Almost all intelligent beings but us seem to have this flaw." The alien noted. "And it is a flaw... Humans hold hands to comfort one another. They crave touch... and they also fear it. He leaned into my hand when I first took his in mine. I think he thought it was your hand..." The alien nodded down toward Morty, who sniffed back tears and tried once more to pull away.

"Get off of me..." Morty whispered, his voice shaking. "Please let go..."

"He enjoyed the feeling... and now he's fearful of it. It's the same exact feeling he was comforted by seconds earlier." The alien noted, all but ignoring Morty's words and feeble struggles.

"Well, now that he knows it's your hand instead of mine, he's scared... 'Cuz you're all emotionless, ass-probing fuckin' freaks." Rick glared.

"Very irrational. Within seconds. Comfort and then fear..." The alien persisted. "Of the exact same touch. My appendage holding onto his."

Rick exhaled loudly, finally reaching his laser gun and gripping it, debating either giving this guy a little speech or just fuckin' killing him. He kind of still wanted to have the last word, and Morty wasn't in any real danger here. The fuckin' alien was holding his hand... It was kind of right about Morty being irrational to cry over it... But its friends had just threatened to shove a probe up the kid's ass. Morty had seen a dead human specimen in a giant fucking jar downstairs. This place and these people were fucking terrifying.

"You know what..." Rick frowned. "Maybe you're right... Humans are dumb. We think with our hearts instead of our brains-"

"You do?" The alien's brow rose.

"God damn. No. Not literally... It's a metaphor... We're irrational, emotion-driven." Rick explained. "But that means we take no shit. We hold grudges. If someone fucks with us, or our friends or family... We fucking kill them."

With that, Rick raised up his laser gun, pointed it at the alien, and shot him into nothing.

Rolling his eyes again, Rick placed his laser gun back on the table and started throwing more of the sample vials against the wall. "I don't think that fuckin' thing even cared that I was about to kill it. It didn't even fuckin' flinch." Rick noted, glancing over his shoulder at Morty.

Morty whimpered as he curled in on himself, pulling Rick's coat tighter around his shoulders. He still seemed half-asleep, uncoordinated, like every movement was exhausting. "C-can we please j-just go now, Rick?" He whispered, his voice shaking.

"Almost. You don't want these dip shits having samples of our blood, do you?" Rick tossed another vial, smirking at the cracking sound of the glass as it shattered against the wall.

"I d-don't care, Rick... Wh-what could they even do with our blood. Rick, I don't care... I just wanna go... B-before another one shows up..." Morty frowned. "I s-so f-fucking tired of this... Y-you keep putting off leaving, and more of them keep sh-showing up, grabbing me... Scaring me... I wanna leave."

"I think I got 'em all, Morty." Rick assured him.

"You thought that last time too..." Morty pouted, curling in on himself and closing his eyes, seemingly resigning himself to the fact that Rick was going to get them out of here when he was ready and not a moment sooner.

Rick threw another vial at the wall and frowned as he glanced over at his grandson. "Did you really think I was holding your hand?" He asked. When the hell had he ever held Morty's hand for any other reason than to pull him away from or toward something? He didn't just hold his grandson's hand to comfort him. He fucking never had.

Morty sniffed and shook his head, ignoring the question.

Rick shook his head too, throwing the last vial at the wall and then heading back toward Morty. "Come on. Let's get the fuck outta here." He finally agreed, picking Morty up in his arms and not even making fun of the kid when he hugged one arm around Rick's back like he was scared the man would disappear if he didn't.

"I did think it was you, Rick." Morty whispered, closing his eyes and leaning his head against Rick's chest.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Rick frowned as he looked down at Morty. The poor kid was just so naive, so innocent. He constantly expected so much more from Rick than Rick had ever shown he was capable of. Rick wasn't caring. Rick didn't comfort people or do things to be nice. He didn't care about anyone's feelings or fears. Morty should have known that.

Rick held Morty tight against himself, with his portal gun and laser gun balanced on the boy's chest. He could feel his grandson shivering slightly in his arms. The boy had tear-streaks down his cheeks. He felt so small and vulnerable, because he was... Morty was tiny, naive, expected people to understand and expect his fears and emotions... and he took it so damn personally when anyone overstepped his boundaries - except Rick, of course. He put up with a shit ton of harsh, cold truths from his grandfather.

Rick shook his head in frustration with himself as he carried Morty toward the dock where their ship was being held. He had gotten so angry at these aliens for not understanding and respecting Morty's fears, but Rick so often did the same thing. Morty was scared to be left alone, to not just get out of here quickly and not worry about anything else, but Rick hadn't cared. He left him alone anyway, wanted to destroy their blood samples and file notes first... Morty was scared, with good reason... and Rick didn't fucking care.

He was lucky the aliens hadn't done anything to Morty when Rick left him the first time. As Morty had complained - they could have. Rick wasn't paying attention. He left his grandson on his own long enough that they could have performed the procedure Rick had dislocated his fucking thumb to save the kid from.

Considering Rick took pride in how smart, reasonable, and logical he was, he sure did some dumb, reckless shit...

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	6. Chapter 6

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Chapter 6

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With a small gasp and a flinch, Morty blinked his heavy eye lids open, pulling his hand away from whatever was grabbing it. The last thing he remembered, Rick was carrying him out of the aliens' laboratory, headed back to their own space ship.

He blinked a few more times, noticing Rick, still completely naked, sitting in the driver's seat of his space-car, seemingly very deliberately avoiding looking Morty's way. Had he just been holding Morty's hand? Morty felt like something was grabbing at his hand when he woke up. Rick was the only other person here...

Morty smiled slightly, knowing Rick probably wouldn't admit that he had been trying to comfort him. Morty appreciated the gesture anyway, especially after the hellish nightmare day he had just experienced.

Breathing out a somewhat heavy breath, Morty looked around himself, finding he was still wrapped up in Rick's lab coat. In fact, that was all he was wearing... He was snuggled down in the passenger seat of Rick's ship, with the seat belt stretched across him.

He smiled as he noticed the seat belt. Rick hardly ever wore his. He didn't seem to care or worry about getting in an accident, but he still took the time to make sure Morty was buckled in.

Rick didn't often show much care toward anyone - not even himself, which was why little things like that meant so much to Morty. Rick could have just thrown Morty into the passenger seat and headed off. He didn't have to put on his grandson's seat belt. He didn't have to cover Morty up with the lab coat... He certainly didn't have to grip Morty's hand while he slept to help put his mind at ease. He was taking Morty's feelings into consideration for once.

"You feeling better, Morty?" Rick wondered, still not taking his eyes off the scene outside the windshield.

"I think so..." Morty spoke, his voice small. He kind of felt like he'd taken a sleeping pill and hadn't given himself enough time to let it wear off before waking up. He felt like he could fall asleep again any minute. "I'm tired." He noted.

Rick nodded, glancing toward Morty for a moment with a frown. "I've been reading up on Yuntzbriis. Those are the aliens who took us. From the planet Skrink. The sedative's probably gonna take a couple days to wear off fully. I mean, you won't be like full-fuckin' passed out the whole time, but you'll be tired for a few days. They use powerful stuff so they can experiment longer without you fighting back in a significant way."

Morty groaned. "Damn..." He yawned, closing his eyes. He was more than ready to feel fully awake again. Feeling so exhausted he could barely manage to move was beginning to be quite frustrating.

"You'll be okay though. There's not much info on them, because it seems like most of the creatures they abduct end up dead so there's no one left to tell the tale, but there've been at least fifteen documented cases of people surviving all their bullshit and not ending up in a vat of formaldehyde. We're lucky we got out when we did." Rick noted.

Morty blinked his eyes back open. "Why? What else were they gonna do besides stick stuff in our butts and kill us?" He frowned.

"Well, lots of stuff in between those two things." Rick laughed. "They've been known to transplant organs from one species to another - just to see if it works... It doesn't, by the way. Not usually. Like maybe less than 1% of the time. Breed different species together - that wouldn't have hurt for us after the initial semen-collecting process - though I actually don't think I would have minded that part as much as you clearly would have."

Morty frowned. Rick would too have minded it. "No one wants someone to force something up their butt, Rick. You don't always have to act like you don't care about anything."

"Wouldn't have been force in my case, Morty. It might have felt nice." Rick shrugged.

Morty rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat. He pushed his hands down into the lab coat's pockets as Rick spoke. His grandfather had so much stuff in this coat. It was a miracle he could even wear it without stuff falling out everywhere all the time.

"They also just test various drugs on all their captives. Again, I probably could'a had fun with that." Rick laughed. "Unless it was something lethal."

"Well, I-" Morty cut himself off with a grimace when he felt something long and smooth in the lab coat pocket. "Rick, what's-" He gasped as he lifted the item out of the coat and let it fall out of his hand onto the ship's floor. "Ew! Rick! Why did you take this!?" It was the weird rod the alien threatened to put in his butt.

"I told you I kinda wanted to try it out. I'll wash it first." Rick shrugged.

"God damn, Rick. That's fucking disgusting." Morty pouted, crossing his arms over his chest and drawing his feet up into the seat as he stared down at the object on the floorboard. It kind of made him want to puke just looking at it. That alien was like literally an actual second away from shoving that up his butt. Morty had even felt the end of it pressed up against him.

"Don't kink-shame me, Morty. You gotta try everything once." Rick defended himself.

"Whatever, Rick. You do what you want. I didn't need to know that..." Morty frowned, still staring down at the long, slender object.

"Anyway, besides getting killed and thrown into a specimen jar, we would'a had to go through so much fuckin' bullshit. Real twisted shit. I mean, twisted even for me, Morty. Switchin' people's eyes, pulling teeth, transferring blood from one being to the next, electrocuting your balls... We dodged a bullet getting out of there. For a species that claims to be so logical, they sure have a high mortality rate in their test subjects." Rick noted.

"Electrocuting our balls?" Morty grimaced.

Rick looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "That's the part of that you're hung up on?"

Morty frowned and looked down. "W-well is sounds really fucked up..."

"Yeah. I guess. Kinda..." Rick sort of agreed.

"Rick?" Morty looked over at his grandfather.

"What?" Rick glanced back, then looked back out the front of the space ship's window.

"When I was like drugged and passed out... what did they do? Y-you know, I woke up, and they were gonna put that thing in my butt... What did they do before that? You said they didn't do much. They took blood samples? But what else? It seemed like there was a lot of time missing. I woke up in a different place, and... How'd I end up wearing your coat?" Morty frowned.

"They didn't do much... Took notes, took some of your blood, and mine. I told 'em you were cold and you needed the coat so you wouldn't die." Rick explained with a shrug.

Morty smiled slightly, appreciating the fact that Rick had managed to convince the aliens of that. Morty would have certainly survived without the coat, but Rick either knew Morty was embarrassed or saw him shivering... maybe both, and talked the alien into giving him something to cover up with.

"They didn't like... do anything, you know... like sexual though?" Morty wondered with a frown. "I mean, I know I woke up before they did the one thing... And I know it doesn't really matter because I wouldn't remember it anyway and if I'm not hurt it shouldn't matter... B-but it does matter to me... You can tell me. You don't have to lie... I can handle it if they did... but they didn't do anything else like that, did they? You can tell me... If they did, I'd wanna know. I wouldn't ask if I couldn't handle the truth."

"They didn't, Morty." Rick frowned as he looked back at his grandson.

"You sure?" Morty pouted. "You look like you're hiding something..." Morty looked down at himself, pulling the lab coat back, looking down between his legs and shifting in his seat. It didn't feel like anything weird happened down there. He looked back up at Rick, who still had an almost worried expression on his face. "What, Rick?" Morty frowned.

Rick shook his head. "Nothing..." He insisted.

"Rick..." Morty whined, feeling his heart sink and his stomach grow cold. "What? What did they do?"

"Nothing. They didn't do anything to you, Morty." Rick promised.

"Then why do you look almost like you're gonna puke? Rick, what did they do?" Morty asked again.

"They seriously didn't do anything else." Rick insisted. "Just... Guess I'm just sorta realizing I might be dumber than I thought..."

"What do you mean?" Morty frowned.

Rick shook his head again. "Just emotions and shit. I try to be rational and logical and these stupid fucking human emotions get in the way."

"Well, you are a human though, Rick. It's okay to be scared of being hurt and stuff." Morty assured him. "It's normal if someone hurts you or tries to, for you to give a damn. You don't have to always be so cold and detached."

"No." Rick shook his head. "No. I wasn't fucking scared of being hurt. God damn, Morty. I'm not fucking afraid of being hurt. Nothing can hurt me."

"Well, you were afraid of something." Morty crossed his arms over his chest and stuck his lower lip out.

"Yeah... Maybe I was..." Rick agreed, blinking as he stared at Morty for another few seconds, then turning back in his seat. "At any rate, I'm gonna fashion some of that sand into something that maybe can counteract various sedatives so if we get into any shit like this again we'll have something to wake your ass back up so I don't have to drag your limp fuckin' body all over hell."

Morty forced a small laugh. "That would be convenient, because I feel so fucking exhausted."

"Yeah, I know. I can see that." Rick noted.

"Thanks for getting us out of there, Rick." Morty spoke up before the moment was gone. "I know it wasn't a big deal to you, but it was to me, and I'm glad you gave a damn enough to keep them from doing some of that fucked up stuff they were trying to do... I was really scared."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Don't worry about it." Rick continued staring out the windshield.

"I really was, Rick. When I saw that dead guy in the jar and god, what was it like three or four different aliens trying to like do horrible things, or at least talking about it. I thought-"

"It's fine, Morty. Don't get mushy over it." Rick frowned. "You're fine. We're fine. It's done. We don't need to talk about it."

Morty stared at Rick for a moment, then turned his head back and looked out the windshield at the stars. Maybe Rick was bothered by this a lot more than he expected himself to be. Maybe Rick was bothered by a lot of stuff more than the man thought he'd be.

Maybe Rick wasn't even scared for himself. He flat out said he didn't care too much about being stripped naked or touched in private places. He didn't care about the weird probe... He even took it with him. Maybe he was scared for Morty's sake. Rick didn't seem that bothered by any of it until he noticed Morty did... Maybe seeing how scared Morty was upset Rick too.

Perhaps that was why he looked weird when he was staring at Morty earlier - he felt bad that Morty had been so scared and upset. Perhaps that was why he didn't want to talk about it. It made him uncomfortable. Maybe Morty's feelings really did matter to him. Not all of them obviously, but maybe he could judge when it really mattered. It did really matter this time. This time was different than a lot of others. He really did think the aliens were going to hurt him - in really awful, invasive, embarrassing ways. Maybe Morty's severe discomfort actually mattered to Rick this time.

Morty glanced back toward the man again, feeling his eyelids growing heavy and his breaths evening out. He blinked slowly as he watched Rick staring silently out into space. The stars and distant planets shined behind him.

Morty smiled. Rick was right. They didn't need to talk about it. Things were scary and uncertain for a while, but as usual, Rick got Morty out of the trouble he'd gotten him into. Rick was far from perfect, but he was always there when it really mattered, and he always would be.

"The stars are really beautiful, Rick..." Morty whispered as he felt himself falling back to sleep. He was okay to just leave the rest of his feelings and Rick's unspoken. They both knew the other was scared, and they both knew exactly why.

"Yeah. They really are, Morty." Rick agreed.

xxxxxx

THE END

xxxxxx


End file.
